by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
A- Rated R 115 min
In the history of scams, Clifford Irving’s fabricated Howard Hughes’ autobiography takes the fake-Pulitzer for the most audacious. Irving’s complicated con involved America’s most prestigious publishing house, McGraw Hill. The media circus aftermath made Irving an infamous celebrity and led to his incarceration behind bars for seventeen months. Then he emerged with a follow up book, The Hoax, on which this movie is based.
Irving’s ingenious scam was based on Howard Hughes reclusive reputation. Irving thought that Hughes would stay quiet because Irving used dirt in the form of files Hughes had on Nixon, which Irving mysteriously received from an unknown source. He used this shocking exposé in his book.
More significantly, Irving knew that Hughes was entangled in a lawsuit with TWA and would not challenge what was essentially an unauthorized biography of him. It was only after Hughes held a conference call from his secluded penthouse with members of the press denouncing the book as a complete fabrication that scandal broke wide-open.
Brazenly, Irving forged Hughes handwriting and signature to authenticate his collaboration with Hughes, convincing the bigwigs at McGraw Hill that he was interviewing Hughes on a regular basis. He even mimicked Hughes voice on the tape in case he had to produce it. This was the Superbowl of cons. When the excrement hit the fan, the fallout sent the media into a frenzy of speculation and conspiracy theories ran rampant.
Filmmaker, Lasse Hallstrom’s taut direction with William Wheeler’s adapted screenplay created an accurate period mosaic for Richard Gere, as Irving, and Alfred Molina, as Richard Suskin, to create their characters with skillful elan. Gere portrays Irving as an egocentric man of destiny who desperately wanted to be respected as an author, but more importantly, he wanted to be famous and filthy rich. His last book on the artist who painted like the masters sold well but was not on the Times top ten list. He got the idea for the Hughes’ autobiography when he read a Look Magazine expose’ of Hughes’ many eccentricities. “If Hughes was this crazy, then he would not pay attention to this book,” Irving mistakingly reasoned. Besides, including the dirt on Nixon would surely appease Hughes.
Not since The Sting has a con game scenario unfolded with such fast-paced, layered complexity than Hagstrom’s film on this outrageous publishing fraud. Irving’s friend and accomplice, Richard Suskin, is humorously created by Molina. Suskin is a sweaty mass of paranoia just thinking of the scope of the scheme, yet he is fascinated by how easily Irving is pulling the wool over the eyes of the publisher and even Hughes’ confidant. Hope Davis plays Andrea Tate, Irving’s contact at McGraw Hill who goes to bat for him with her bosses.
Gere portrays Irving as a likeable rogue who had perpetrated a fraud so brazen the viewer can’t help but pull for him to succeed. After all, so much ballyhoo had already been written by other authors about Hughes’ celebrated weirdness. However, the Big Lie was Irving’s collaboration with Hughes. Irving had taken this scam so far he started to believe he was psychically linked with Hughes’ mind. In a bizarre scene, Suskin is drawn into the plot by claiming himself as co-author and the book’s researcher.
Stanley Tucci portrays Sheldon Fisher, chairman of the McGraw board. He had the good sense to question Irving’s forged Hughes credentials, including the hand-written contracts. But a Hughes confidant authenticated the documents. The obvious question is: Why didn’t someone from McGraw Hill contact Hughes directly? Of course, Hughes used intermediaries to communicate, but the McGraw Hill suits were so swept up in the euphoria of this book, they temporarily lost their judgement.
Marcia Gay Harden is a cast standout as Irving’s long suffering wife, Edith. It was her idea to take Howard Hughes’ forged $1 million check to Switzerland to open a numbered account. She ended up serving time in a Swiss jail for her part in this caper. Julie Delay plays Irving’s lover Nina, who testified against him. In the end, Irving’s friends and associates jumped ship when the axe fell.
Irving’s egomania fueled his greed to the point that he lost all reason and pushed the scheme to its breaking point. There were too many loose ends and he failed to realize that sooner or later he would get caught. But, it was a wild and crazy adventure that made him a household word. Irving’s con almost justified his prison term, which makes this scenario a wildly entertaining movie.
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